Damien’s POV
“Get in the car, Aria. I’m not asking twice.”
She froze like she wanted to say no, like she thought she could test how far she could push me, how much control I’d let her believe she had. But her lips stayed tight. Her hands trembled once, and then she moved.
I watched the small flinch in her chest when she obeyed. I liked it the fight buried under fear, the fire she didn’t know how to hide. She walked stiffly toward the car, chin high, proud even when her voice was gone. Every step she took pulled something inside me tighter, something I didn’t want to name.
She slid into the seat beside me without a word, her eyes locked on the window, but her pulse gave her away. I could see it in the hollow of her throat, a faint rhythm that matched the thrum in my own veins. She sat
